Getting to Know Clubbers, Beachgoers and Bullfighters

"I always try to capture something that is really significant for somebody. It has to do with a gesture or a gaze or a stance," says Dutch-born, 53-year-old Rineke Dijkstra.

The resulting large-scale still and video portraits of soldiers, clubbers, beach-goers, bullfighters and new mothers—collected in Ms. Dijkstra's first major North American museum exhibition—come to New York's Guggenheim Museum next week, after a stop at...